Novak Djokovic shouts out Carlos Alcaraz after their own 'El Clásico' at Paris Olympics

Novak Djokovic wants Carlos Alcaraz to keep smiling. The Serb delivered a heartfelt message to the Spaniard on Monday after an emotional end to their gold medal match at the Paris Olympics.

The two-tiebreak affair, , lasted nearly three hours, a worthy follow-up to the pair's last best-of-three-set match in a final: the three-hour and 49-minute championship match in Cincinnati last summer that was also won by Djokovic 5-7, 7-6(7), 7-6(4).

Following the match, Alcaraz was frank in what falling short of the top prize meant to him, saying in part: "I feel that I let the Spanish people down. I feel they were waiting for the gold medal."

"I’m really disappointed but honestly, I’m going to leave the court with my head really high," he later continued. "I gave everything that I had fighting for Spain. It was everything to me so I’m proud the way that I played today.”

But Djokovic wanted the 21-year-old to look at the glass half full. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the 24-time time major champion dubbed their match "epic," and dubbed their already-iconic rivalry the tennis version of the famous one between Alcaraz's favorite soccer club, Real Madrid, and Barcelona. He signed off with an encouraging message to the prodigious youngster about his future.

"Considering your age, your energy and the way you play, you probably have 20 more Olympics ahead of you," Djokovic wrote. "Your gold will come. Until next time, amigo."

While the head-to-head history between Spain's two most iconic teams dates back more than a century, Alcaraz and Djokovic are building up lore of their own in a much shorter time frame since their first-ever meeting just over two years ago. Djokovic's win in the Olympic final came just three weeks after Alcaraz scored a dominant win against him to win Wimbledon, and despite never trailing on the scoreboard in Sunday's match, Djokovic stayed firmly in the moment.

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“When the last shot went past him, that was the only moment I actually thought I could win the match," he told press. "I mean I believed that I could win, but to actually win it, because he keeps on coming back. He keeps on asking me to play my best tennis."

After having fallen short of bringing the gold medal back to his country at the last three Olympics, Djokovic could understand Alcaraz's post-match emotions more than most.

“It’s my pride to play for Serbia," Djokovic said. "I know Carlos and Rafa [Nadal], they love to play for Spain. Andy [Murray] loved to play for Great Britain. Roger [Federer] for Switzerland. Alex Zverev won in Tokyo for Germany. You saw the reactions of all these guys when they win. It’s something special."

"I put my heart, my soul, my body, my family, my everything on the line to win Olympic gold at age 37," he added. "I finally did it.”